Colourful quilts and knitwear by renowned American textile artist Kaffe Fassett has gone on show in Wales in two separate exhibitions. Karen Price asks him about his love of colour and his views on the knitting boom

KAFFE FASSETT’S quilts are an explosion of riotous colour and patterns. But the internationally-renowned American textile artist has not always worked with a colourful palette.

“I’m a colourist – I’m crazy, obsessive and mad about colour,” says the man who started out as a painter.

“I’ve always been a champion of colour. But when I started doing watercolours I would do still lifes of white objects. Due to places like the V&A in London, where I would see Indian and Persian miniatures of oriental paintings in fabulous colour, I couldn’t resist introducing colour into my work little by little.”

Now some of his elaborately colourful quilts are on display at the Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter. Meanwhile, the National Wool Museum in nearby Llandysul is hosting an exhibition of his knitwear.

Fassett, who was born in San Francisco, has lived in London since the 60s, the decade when he started out in his career in textiles.

He began with knitwear and has since worked with needlepoint, mosaics, rug-making and quilting.

Fassett, 75 – who initially studied at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston – ventured into the world of colourful yarn following a visit to a Scottish wool mill with fashion designer Bill Gibb.

Inspired by the colours in the landscape, he discovered the same colours in yarns and bought 20 of them.

And he has a stranger on his return train journey to London to thank for teaching him how to knit, which set him on the path to his phenomenally successful career.

“I said to the woman sitting next to me, ‘Do you know how to knit?’. And she taught me how to knit on the train.

“The first thing I made – which was badly made – I took straight to Vogue magazine and they loved it.”

In fact, they loved it so much that it was featured in a full page spread in Vogue Knitting magazine. Since then he has designed many collections and has written several books on knitting.

Fassett is thrilled with the rise in the popularity of knitting in recent years.

“I say it’s about b***** time!” he says. “I’ve been screaming my head off since 1964 about what a wonderful thing it is and finally the rest of the world has caught on. It’s a wonderful life-enhancing experience to sit at home and work with textiles as you listen to a play on Radio 4 – you find yourself in a wonderful space.”

As part of the museum’s exhibition, Brandon Mably, the well-known knitting designer and author who works in partnership with Fassett, will be holding a day-long workshop on April 2.

Meanwhile, the Welsh Quilt Centre will also be hosting events to coincide with his exhibition. On March 30 visitors will be able to hear from the man himself when he holds a day-long workshop. He will return to Lampeter on April 1 to deliver a lecture, Concentrate On Colour, in the Old Hall at the town’s university.

Jen Jones, who runs the Welsh Quilt Centre, is expecting plenty of interest in Fassett’s quilts.

She says: “This is a unique opportunity to see the work of this talented artist in Wales, one that shouldn’t be missed.

“I think it’s a wonderful place and a phenomenal facility,” he says. “I’ve known about Jen Jones for years and have always admired her passion for putting Welsh quilts on the map.”

While his career has now spanned six decades, Fassett, who has also published a number of books, seems to be more enthused than ever with textiles. And he particularly likes the fact that he can now communicate quickly and easily via the internet with those who are inspired by him.

“I enjoy it more and more,” he says of his work.

“What’s so wonderful nowadays is that people will tell me what they have done and they can share their work online.

“It’s so exciting to see how people take what you give them and do something with it.”

Kaffe Fassett’s work is on show at the Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter, and at the National Wool Museum, Llandysul, until November 2.